good wednesday morning to you. a busy wednesday morning. i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm poppy harlow. the families of victims of the uvalde and buffalo mass shootings about to testify before congress how gun violence changed their lives. lawmakers will hear gripping testimony from 11-year-old mia sario who survived the mass shooting at robb elementary by covering herself in her friend's blood and pretending to be dead. we will take you there live when

these witnesses begin talking. >> goodness. an 11-year-old girl. as a small circle of senate negotiators, democrats and republicans continue to work on the possibility of gun legislation. cnn has learned that a larger group in the senate are expected to meet in the next hour to discuss an emerging proposed package, following an emotional plea by actor and uvalde texas native matthew mcconaughey from the white house podium yesterday. >> can both sides rise above? can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands? we've got a chance right now to reach for and to grasp a higher ground above our political affiliations. the chance to make a choice that does more than protect your party, a chance to make a choice that protects our country, now and for the next generation.

>> my next guest was elected to the senate as a pro-gun democrat in 2007. he voted to allow guns on amtrak trains in 2009 and everything changed for him after the sandy hook elementary school massacre in 2012. pennsylvania senator bob casey just published this piece in the "washington post" this morning about his own shift on guns and he writes, i will never forget the shock, horror, and grief of learning that 26 families would never see their loved ones again. i was struck by the stark realization that we did not have to live like this. the idea that more than 2 dozen students and educators could be slaughtered in a matter of minutes because a 20-year-old had virtually unfettered access to weapons of war was too much to bear, so i changed my position and now it's time for many of my colleagues in the senate to do the same. senator bob casey joined me. senator, thank you. why did you write this? do you think it's because this is a moment when you guys

actually act? >> poppy, i think it is a moment. there are times in american history where you come to a fork in the road as a member of the united states senate or as a citizen, and in this case, as a legislative body in the senate. i think we're at one of those forks in the road, and you have to ask yourself, i believe, the same questions that i was asking myself in december of 2012. i guess it was december the 12th on that friday when i began to hear the news about sandy hook. and my reactive position was, no new laws will make a difference. that was the lane that i was in. there are only two lanes in american politics with the question of guns. you're either in the lane that says there are no laws that will make a difference or the other lane that says we have to act or try something to at least reduce the likelihood that we're going to live in a country that accepts this kind of violence. it's totally contrary to the

american experience to surrender to a problem. we didn't surrender world war ii to the most powerful armies in the history of the world. we didn't surrender after 9/11. we stopped terrorists from flying into buildings. no one is saying it will take one law. this is going to take years to solve but we have to start, the senate has to act now to come together and i'm grateful for the work that's being done on a bipartisan basis. >> i remember reading about that moment when i think a reporter told you or was talking to you right after sandy hook and said, i don't think the gun laws are going to change and then your wife and daughters, frankly, chastised you for that position and helped you evolve, and i ask you that in the context of the polling from cbs that shows 44% of republicans think mass shootings are something this

country have to accept to live in a free society. i wonder what you say to them considering your own evolution. you were in that, in a different party but saying then what they're saying now. >> i think they have to or they should at least confront the same questions that i confronted, but frankly, the questions that americans are confronting. do we have to wake up, i mean, this is the headline from what happened in uvalde. i mean, that's the headline. are we going to wake up year after year, a generation after generation to headlines with pictures of fourth graders, children in schools, and say there's nothing, nothing, the most powerful nation in the world can do? that is a defeatist point of view, and in addition to being wrong on the policy, it's contrary to everything we say we believe in as americans, and i think they have to, i hope they're confronting the same questions i was confronting for my four daughters and my wife

but also watching the coverage that weekend, that terrible weekend in december of 2012 hour after hour and seeing what happened to those children. now that we face the reality that these children couldn't be identified, except for dna evidence. i mean, are we really saying that because of some political pressure that we're not going to respond to that? that is just a kind of madness that i don't think many americans are willing to tolerate. >> so let's talk about what could get passed, do you think, because our lauren fox is reporting that the texas gop on this side has a framework that would not include an assault weapon ban as you asked for in your op-ed but hardening school security, mental health money, allowing juvenile records to be accessed for anyone under 21

trying to buy a high powered weapon, potentially more funding in the states for red flag laws. when proposals didn't go far enough for many democrats in the senate, they voted against it. are you willing to vote for something like that? >> well, look. i'm encouraged that the, some of the basic issues around the availability of guns are not off the table. okay, so we're hearing that the negotiations and, of course, nothing is final until they're done, but i'm encouraged that they're talking about maybe a waiting period. >> okay. >> that's encouraging. that they're also talking about examining juvenile records before someone has access to a firearm. that's an important breakthrough. i don't know the details of what might emerge on background checks beyond that, but those are encouraging. but we have to get there because i think for a lot of americans, especially for parents who are sending their children to school every day, a kind of despair is,

i think is emerging across the country. that this institution cannot respond to a problem that most americans believe is a kind of condition that no americans should accept. i mean, we have to ask ourselves as well, where is a safe place in america? grocery stores aren't safe. synagogues, churches, over and over again. i don't think most americans are willing to live that way. >> yeah, you're right. we feel paralyzed as parents, and i think it's not the question of can not act but will your body act and make change? thank you for your time, senator casey. >> thanks, poppy. >> jim? >> we'll be watching capitol hill, ahead of the public hearing, cnn learned the panel will get access to 159 emails

from the right-wing attorney, so essential to the plans to overturn the election. emails related to his efforts to block the 2020 election result, donald trump. the significance of these developments, former federal prosecutor, cnn analyst. good to have both of you here. if i could begin with you. the significance of these emails. eastman made an effort to overturn the results of the election and frankly in the public comments, not shied away from that. he was quite fulsome in sort of describing those efforts. what's the significance of these emails? >> i think it's further evidence of what the real planning, what the strategy was and that's important to show here, because really, what we're seeing is it's not just compartmentalized violence on that day by the sort of muscle end of things, the violent protesters, the oath keepers, proud boys, but there is this overall strategy and that's what's important for them to show and connect those.

>> okay, how do they do that? you have a political issue here, the politics don't appear to be changing. there's a significant portion of the population who will not be watching, and casting this at least in primetime, but on the legal front here, and on the possibility of presenting evidence that might lead the justice department to prosecute, what do you need to see? >> a few things here. the goal of the committee's investigation is not necessarily to produce evidence to prosecute people. the goal of the committee's investigation is several. number one, to lay out the facts of what happened on january 6th. number two, to lay out what the planning was that went into it, both the political strategy to overturn the election and the violence that was connected to it, and then number three, to be able to make the capital safer. nothing like this should ever happen again. there is a physical security component of this and the security of lawmakers aspect that i hope will be part of the

committee work. there have been charges of contempt from the committee investigation and the justice department certainly can use information that has developed in the committee investigation if they see that there are things that they have not, in their own investigation previously discovered, but the goal is different than the justice department investigation. >> it's a good point to bring about safety in the capitol because that was quite a topic of conversation in the weeks afterward that faded away, but about protecting democratic and republican lawmakers because both were under threat that day. another, secret service considered the motorcade to take former president trump to capitol hill on the 6th after trump at that rally publicly expressed an interest. i'm going to go there with you. in the end, it didn't happen. the question is intent. it is so central to the president's culpability. is that evidence that trump wasn't, as he claimed, surprised by what he saw there but had some intent to take part in it? >> yeah, i think this is very much about his intent, what his

state of mind was and possibly of the inner circle. from the reporting, we're seeing he had been rebuffed earlier but yet on that day, he still was bringing that up. and, you know, he's great at marketing and imagery. the idea, the image of a motorcade heading to the capitol would have been very powerful because the secret service is a symbol of presidential power, so he's quite clever to be trying that. >> imagine that going up to the hill. okay, earlier this week, five proud boys were charged with the quite serious charge of seditious conspiracy. i understand the legal standard. what does that tell you about the broader investigation here? if the doj believes it has the goods on that serious a charge which goes to planning and connections of multiple individuals in terms of planning for this, do you believe there's more going on behind the scenes? >> i do. there's a very comprehensive, probably the biggest

investigation in the justice department's history with the scope of the defendant, the national scope of the investigation. the seditious conspiracy charges are important. they're not the first we've seen in the january 6th cases. there were previously oath keepers charged with seditious conspiracy. using force to prevent the lawful function of government. the violent aspect they're charged. so i think these new charges on the proud boy leadership in terms of their involvement and their charges of seditious conspiracy is important, and it shows that the justice department is continuing its investigation. it's not finished. they have more work to do, and they are continuing to look at who was involved in the planning and the strategy of the attack on capitol hill. >> sedition. that goes right to challenging the functioning of government. carrie cordero, shan wu, a lot to watch in the coming weeks. thank you so much. president biden is getting ready to head out west as u.s. plays host to the summit of the

americas. from some key regional leaders, trouble potentially for the biden administration. also, a car careens into a crowd in berlin leaving one person dead. what we're learning this hour about the driver who's now being questioned by police. we are also keeping a close eye on the hearing that's just begun on capitol hill. the house oversight committee's hearing on the gun violence epidemic. soon you'll hear live right here from a young survivor of the uvalde elementary school mass shooting, and families of victims in the shooting there and in buffalo. stay with us.

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in the next hour, president biden will head to los angeles to host the ninth summit of the americas, but folks will be missing leaders of several key nations will not attend. they're boycotting the event. >> that's right, including the president of mexico and others skipping this summit because the biden administration did not invite the autocratic leaders of cuba, nicaragua and venezuela. arlette saenz joining us from the white house. this was obviously a very intentional decision from the white house saying they don't deserve to be there, but it is interesting to see mexico say either invite all of them or we're not going. >> reporter: the white house was really insistent, jim and poppy, that dictators not be invited to this event even if that risks alienating other world leaders

who might decide not to attend the summit of americas and that's exactly what happened. the most high profile leader said they're not attending as mexico's president said this is something he had been previewing for quite some time but ultimately pulled the plug on his attendance a bit earlier this week. and the administration had really been in a full-court press over the course of the past few weeks trying to get him to attend, but ultimately, that is something that the mexican president decided against. additionally, there are countries like guatemala, honduras, el salvador, key partners when it comes to addressing issues of migration, they also will not be attending this event. and there has been some frustration among administration officials on the fact that this attendance list, the participation list had overshadowed parts of what they are actually trying to accomplish with the summit. the president will be departing here from the white house within the next hour traveling to los angeles for this three-day summit that is going to include

the heads of state of 23 different countries. the president, over the course of the next few days and allies are expected to roll out new economic climate and migration initiatives but so much of the focus in the lead-up to this summit has been about those countries that would or would not be attending, and so for the administration, they are heading into this with some of their priorities a bit overshadowed but still insisted that the president is going to have those deliverables, as been working with the other countries to show off at this summit as he heads out to los angeles in the next hour. >> arlette saenz at the white house for us. thank you very much. speaking of what's happening in california, voters in california sending a very loud and clear message to refocus on ensuring public safety, restoring order in their state, that is the key takeaway, really, from primaries yesterday. >> cnn senior national correspondent kyung lah in los

angeles. this is a marker, even democratic politicians say a bellwether for progressive democrats in california. what have you been finding? >> especially when you talk about california, the bluest cities, really, in the entire country, if you look at how people feel in these two largest cities of california. and so what they're saying, if you look at these results, especially in the city of san francisco, even though we talk about low turnout, less than 70% so far as we track the ballots coming in, they're saying no to the progressive prosecutor up there, recalling boudin and if you look at the numbers of the mayor's race, even though it was self-funded, by rick crusoe, he is ahead of karen bass, a six term congresswoman and what caruso was able to do is send a message to democrats saying that

he's different. yes, he used to be republican, but he wants to take care of something that is really plaguing los angeles and some new areas is homelessness and a surge in crime. look at his message last night. >> my fellow angelinos, we can solve homelessness, can curb crime, can put city hall back in the service of people. >> thank you for joining us. our fight for small business owners, reeling from the pandemic who now worry about smash and grabs plunging them deeper into debt. thank you for joining our fight to house over 50,000 angelinos who will go to sleep at night. >> talking about the issues, more moderate than some of the progressives here would like her to be, but something important to point out, poppy and jim, he is also been under some serious

attacks. he has outspent her in this primary more than 10 times. that will be a different ball game when you're talking about two candidates heading into a runoff, really squaring off against each other. >> we have seen a lot of times where the candidate who outspends doesn't necessarily win, but we'll see. kyung lah in l.a. thank you so much. >> you got it. it is a city almost completely occupied now by russian forces, against its will, by the way. new allegations involving russia's treatment of hundreds of hostages in the city of kherson. cnn gets exclusive access to the front lines of war with ukrainian soldiers fighting to retake the south. we are also monitoring this house oversight committee hearing on the gun violence epidemic. soon, you'll hear live from a young survivor of the uvalde elementary school shooting and families of victims in that shooting and the buffalo supermarket shooting. stay right here.

let's take you now to the house oversight committee hearing on the gun violence epidemic. you'll listen to family members who lost their children in the uvalde shooting and the buffalo shooting and survivors. >> zaire, the kid, a 20-year-old man. pure joy. everything that is good in this world. and as i sit here before you today, i can hear my son telling me to stop doing extra and get to the point. i was going to tell you a bunch of fluffy funny stories about

zaire, but i have a message so i'll get to the point. as director of diversity and inclusion with state senators near the office, stories of gun violence and racism are all too familiar. but now these stories are zaire's stories. these problems literally knocked on my front door. these are issues, as a country, we do not like to openly discuss. domestic terrorism exists for three reasons. america is inherently violent. this is who we are as a nation. the very existence of this country was founded on violence, hate, and racism, with the near annihilation of my native brothers and sisters. my ancestors brought to america through the slave trade the first of america. let me say that again for the people in the back. my ancestors, the first currency of america, were stripped of their heritage and culture, separated from their families, bargained for on auction blocs,

raped and lynched but i continue to hear this is not who we are as americans and a nation. hear me clearly. this is exactly who we are. education. the majority of what i learned about african-american history, i did not learn until i went to college and i had to choose those classes. why is that? why is african-american history not a part of american history? african-americans built this country from the ground up. my ancestors' blood is embedded in the soil. we have to change the curriculum in schools across the country so that we may adequately educate our children. reading about history is crucial to the future of this country. learning about other cultures, ethnicities, and religions in schools should not be something that is up for debate. we cannot continue to whitewash education, creating generations of children to believe that one race of people are better than

the other. our differences should make us curious, not angry. at the end of the day, i bleed, you bleed, we are all human. the awful day that will now be a part of the history books, hopefully. let us not forget to add that horrific day to the curriculum that we teach our children. guns. the 18-year-old terrorist who stormed into my community with an ar-15 injuring three others received a shotgun from his parents for his 16th birthday. for zaire's 16th birthday, i bought him a few video games, headphones, pizza and a cake. we are not the same. how? and why? and what in the world is wrong with this country? children should not be armed with weapons. parents who provide their children with guns should be accountable. lawmakers who continuously allow these mass shootings to continue by not passing stricter gun laws

should be voted out. to the lawmakers who feel that we do not need stricter gun laws, let me paint a picture for you. my son, zaire, has a hole in the right side of his neck, two on his back and another on his left leg. caused by exploding bullet from an ar-15. as i clean his wounds, i can feel pieces of the bullet in his back, shrapnel will be left in his body for the rest of his life. i want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children. this should not be your story or mine. as an elected official, it is your duty to draft legislation that protects zaire and all of the children and citizens in this country. common sense gun laws are not about your personal feelings or

bel beliefs. you have been elected because you are chosen to protect us, but let me say, i do not feel protected. no citizen needs an ar-15. these weapons are designed to do the most amount of harm in the least amount of time and it took a domestic terrorist just two minutes to shoot and kill ten people and injure three others. if, after hearing from me and the other people testifying here today, does not move you to act on gun laws, i invite you to my home to help me clean zaire's wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son and to my community. to the families of ruth whitfield, pearl young, katherine, hayward patterson, aaron, andre, marcus morrison, i promise that their deaths will not be in vain. zaire and i promise to use and

lift their names to carry their spirit with us to embark on the journey to create change. i know their collective souls watched out for zaire that day and i am eternally grateful to them for that. to the east side of buffalo, i love you. i'm speaking directly to my people, to my hood. from bailey, to delavan, to jefferson and every street in between, like the potholes we want filled in, yes, i keep it real. together, we will continue to fill the streets with love, no matter what people say about the east side of buffalo. we will not be broken. i was born there, raised there. i raised my son there. i still live there, and i do the majority of my professional work on the east side of buffalo. i bow to you today that everywhere i go, i will make sure that the people here, the real stories of our people. for too long, our community has been neglected and starved of the resources we so greatly need. i promise i'll not stop pushing

for more resources in the east side of buffalo. each and every person that lives within that community, we are family. not a perfect community, but i know that we are loved. to the greater buffalo area, the country, and everyone around the world, on behalf of his father, my mother, my father, my sisters, my brothers. and myself. we thank you. we thank you for all of your thoughts and your prayers. thank you for all of the love and support you have shown us during this difficult time. but i also say to you today with a heart full from the outpouring of love that you also freely gave us, your thoughts and prayers are not enough. we need you to stand with us in the days, weeks, months and years to come, and be ready to go to work and help us to create the change that this country so desperately needs and i will end

with a quote from charles bloom, and his book, "the devil we know." race, as we have come to understand it, is a fiction, but racism as we have come to live it, is a fact. the point here is not to impose a new racial hierarchy, but to remove an existing one. after centuries of waiting for white majorities to overturn white supremacy, it is, to me, that it has fallen to black people to do it themselves and i stand at the ready. zaire, this is for you, kid. happy birthday. >> thank you. dr. greuerrera, you are now recognized for your testimony. >> thank you. thank you, chairwoman. my name is dr. roy guerrera. i was president at uvalde memorial hospital, the day of the massacre on may 24th, 2022,

at robb elementary school. i was called here today as a witness but i showed up because i am a doctor. how many years ago i swore an oath, an oath to do no harm. after witnessing firsthand the carnage in my hometown of uvalde, to stay silent would have betrayed that oath and action to harm, passivity is harm, delay is harm. so here i am, not to plead, not to beg or convince you of anything, but to do my job, and hope that by doing so would inspire the members of the house to do theirs. i've lived in uvalde my whole life and attended robb elementary school as a kid. as often the case with us grown-ups, a lot of the good and not so much of the bad. so i don't recall homework or detention. how much i loved going to school, what a joyful time it was. back then, we were able to run between classrooms with ease to visit our friends, and i remember the way the cafeteria

smelled at lunchtime with hamburger thursdays. it was around lunchtime on a tuesday the gunman entered the school with a main door without restriction. massacred 19 students and two teachers, and changed the way that every student at robb and their family remember that school forever. i won't be remembering the lunch, but the police and parents wailing. i won't forget what i saw that day. for me, that day started like any typical tuesday in our pediatric clinic. moms calling for coughs, biographiysports physicals, right before the summer rush. summer caps would guarantee some ankle sprains, that could be fixed with a mickey mouse sticker as a reward. but then it stopped and my heart. the colleague texted me and said why are pediatric surgeons on

call for a mass shooting in uvalde? i raced to the hospital to find parents outside yelling children's names in desperation, and sobbing as they begged for any news related to their child. the mother's cries, i will never get out of my head. i entered the chaos of the e.r., the first casualty i came across, sitting in the hallway, her face still clearly in shock but her whole body shaking from the adrenaline coursing through it. the shirt was covered in blood and shoulder bleeding from the shrapnel injury. i have known her my whole life. she survived surgeries and once again she's here as a survivor. inspiring us with her story today and her bravery. when i saw mia zitsitting there remember seeing her parents outside. quickly examining two patients of mine outside with injuries, i raced outside to let them know

mia was alive. i wasn't ready for the next urgent and desperate question. where's alena? the 8-year-old sister also at robb at the time of the shooting. i heard there were two dead children who had been moved to the surgical area of the hospital. as i made my way there, i prayed that i wouldn't find her. i didn't find alina but i did find something no prayer would ever relieve. two children whose bodies had been pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been ripped apart, that the only clue of their identities was a blood splatter still clinging to them, for life and finding none. i could only hope these two bodies were a tragic exception to the list of survivors, but as i waited there with my fellow uvalde doctors, nurses and first responders and hospital staff for other casualties we hope to save, they never arrived. all that remained was the bodies of 17 more children and two

teachers who cared for them, dedicated their careers to nurturing and respecting the awesome potential every single one, just as we doctors do. i'll tell you why i became a pediatrician. i knew children were the best patients. they accept the situation as it's explained to them. you don't have to coax them into changing their lifestyles to get better or plead them to modify behavior like you do with adults. no matter how hard you try to help an adult, their path to healing is always determined how willing they are to take action. . ad adults are stubborn, resistant to change even when it makes things better for ourselves but especially when we think we're immune to the fallout. why else would such little progress be made in congress to stop gun violence? innocent children are dead because laws and policies allows people to buy weapons before they're old enough to buy a pack

of beer. they're dead because of restrictions lapsed new york city city, no rules about where guns are kept and no attention to who's buying them. the thing i can't figure out is whether our politicians are failing us out of stubbornness, passivity, or both. i said before as grown-ups, we have a convenient habit of forgetting the good and remembering the bad, never once more with guns. scrubbed off the carnage erased and return again to nostalgia. to the rose tinted view of our second amendment as a perfect instrument of american life. no matter how many lives are lost. i chose to be a pediatrician. i chose to take care of children. keeping them safe from disease is what i can do. keeping them safe from bacteria and brittle bones, i can do. but making sure our children are safe from guns, that's the job

of our politicians and leaders. in this case, you are the doctors, and our country is the patient. we are lying on the operating table with bullets like the children of robb elementary and other schools. we are bleeding out and you are not there. my oath as a doctor means i signed up to save lives. i do my job, and i guess it turns out that i am here to plead, to beg, to please, please do yours. >> thank you. we will now play the video from mia. >> i go to robb elementary .

she went to go lock the door and he was in the hallway. they made eye contact, and then she went to the back of the room to go hide and then we went to go hide behind the teacher's desk, but then he shot and went to the other classroom, and then he went, there's a door between our classrooms, and he went there and shot my teacher and

told my teacher and shot her in the head. and then shot some of my classmates and the white board. when i went, he shot my friend and i thought he was going to come back to the room, so i grabbed a little blood and i pull it all over me and -- >> the blood on yourself? >> to stay quiet and got my teacher's phone and called 9-1-1. >> what did you tell 9-1-1? >> i told her that we need help and she said the police to the classroom. >> there was something that you

want, to know about you? or things that you want different, what would it be? >> to have security. >> do you feel safe at school? why not? >> because i don't want it to happen again. >> do you think it is going to happen again? >> you're now recognized. >> hello. today, i come because i love my baby girl but she is not the same little girl that i used to play with or hang around with and do everything, because she was daddy's little girl. i have five kids and she's the middle child. i don't know what to do because i think i would have lost my baby girl.

my baby girl not once but twice she came back to us. she's everything, not only for me but her siblings and her mother. thank for letting me speak out but i wish something would change, not only for our kids but every single kid in the world because schools are not safe anymore. something needs to really change. thank you. >> thank you for your testimony, and i understand you are now leaving. we thank you for sharing your story. >> mr. and mrs. rubio, you are now recognized for your testimony. >> i am kimberly rubio. we're the parents of alexandria,

all attended uvalde public schools during the 2021-2022 school year. calisa, isaac, david, junior high, elementary, and our two youngest children, julian and lexington, at robb elementary. on the morning of may 24th, 2022, i dropped lexie and julian off at school a little after 7:00 a.m. my husband and i returned for julian's award ceremony and again at 10:30 a.m. for lexie's award ceremony. lexie received the good citizen award and recognized for receiving all a's. at the conclusion of the ceremony, we took photos with her before asking her to pose for a picture with her teacher. that photo, her last photo ever was taken at approximately 10:54

a.m. to celebrate, we promised to get the ice cream we need, and we would pick her up after school. i can still see her walking with us toward the exit. in the reel that keeps scrolling across my memories, she smiles back us to acknowledge my promise, and then we left. i left my daughter at that school, and that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life. after, dropped me off at the office, the uvalde leader and returned home because it was a rare day off between normal shifts and security gigs he takes to make ends meet. i got situated at my desk and began writing about a new business and town when the office started hearing commotion

on the police scanner, a shooting near robb elementary. it wasn't long before we received word they were safe and secure in the classroom. once evacuated from campus, the children reunited with parents and guardians at the civic center. my dad picked up julian from the civic center and took him to my grandmother's house. one of our robb kids was safe. we focused on finding lexi. bus after bus arrived, she wuntd on board. we heard children at the hospital, and drove over, she wasn't there. my dad drove an hour and a half to san antonio to check with the university hospital. at this point, some part of me must have realized she was gone, in the midst of chaos, i had the urge to return to robb. we didn't have our car at this point. traffic was everywhere. so i ran, ran barefoot with my flimsy sandals and my hat.

i ran a mile to the school. my husband with me. we sat outside for a while before it became clear we wouldn't receive an answer from law enforcement on scene. san antonio firefighter eventually gave us a ride back to the civic center where the district was asking all families who had not been reunited with their children to gather. soon after, we received the news that our daughter was among the 19 students and two teachers that died as a result of gun violence. we don't want you to think of l lexi as just a number. she was intelligence, compassionate, flathletic, quie shy unless she had a point to make. right, as she often was, stood her ground. she was firm, direct. so today, we stand for lexi and

as her voice, we demand action. we seek a ban on assault rifles and high capacity magazines. we understand that for some reason, to some people, to people with money, to people who fund political campaigns, the guns are more important than children. at this moment, we seek to raise the age from 18 to 21 years of age. we seek red flag laws, stronger background checks, we also want to repeal gun manufacturer's liability and unity. we've all seen glimpses of what lexi was but who she would have been. if given the opportunity, lexi would have made a positive change in this world. she wanted to attend st. mary's university in san antonio,

texas, on a softball scholarship. she wanted to major in math and go on to attend law school. that opportunity was taken from her. she was taken from us. i'm a reporter, a mom, i've read since they were in the womb and my husband is an iraq war veteran, lovesi fishing and our babies. somewhere out there, there is a mom listening, i can't even imagine their pain. not knowing that our reality will one day be hers, unless we act now. thank you for your time. >> thank you for your testimony. you are now recognized for your

testimony. >> i personally have never seen anything like it. this is a mother speaking through tears, describing what her 10-year-old daughter would have done had she not been murdered. want to play softball, go to law school. a doctor with a pediatrician who talks about treating skinned knees who found children decapitated by gunshot wounds and then you hear an 11-year-old girl describe she had to put blood on herself to survive. i don't know how, i've never seen anything like it and i don't know how folks can hear that and not do something. i don't know. so. >> and miguel, the father of miah, the fourth grader said my little girl will never be the same. you heard her testimony. >> how could she be?

>> she's terrified and talk about losing that little girl. he knew that day. we have our colleagues with us who have been around the clock working and asking for answers on the ground and in washington. and at the white house. omar jiminez. >> reporter: poppy and jim, as everything we've heard in this testimony is what we've heard from families here on the ground. the grandfather of another girl who's injured said she still hears the sound of bullets. she gets scared at even the slightest sound. these are something that are going to stick with these kids for the rest of their lives and the testimony of kimberly rubio, the mother of lexi rubio, killed in this and the decisions that she couldn't have known would have ended up this way, the decision to leave or drop her

child off at school that day and decision will haunt her for the rest of her life. school was a place where she thought her daughter was going to be safe. her son as well, and then here we are two weeks later. still waiting for answers from investigators. we heard, of course, from that pediatric physician who talked about the absolute horror of dealing with these children as they came in one after another and i do want to take a minute to point out some of the specifics from kimberly rubio from lexi, this is part of what their stories are about to try to spur some form of long-term policy change. she wants, specifically, to seek a ban on assault rifles and high capacity magazines, to raise the age of purchase from 18 to 21, to repeal gun manufacturers' liability, increase red flag laws, stronger background checks. these are things that they want in place so the memories of

their children will matter, they feel, and that's something we've heard repeatedly time and time again from people affected by this, but their testimony is the reality of the aftermath of what this does to a community, what this does to a family and what this does to loved ones as they continue to bury their own here in uvalde. >> okay, lauren fox, what's the reality? the fact, many of these things that listed and doctors who treated pulverized children as they described it, ask for it, don't have life on capitol hill. we've heard that phrase this time is different. i can't count the number of times going back to sandy hook and beyond and the times have not proven to be different. what practically may get through the hill this time? >> reporter: well, you heard there from the beginning of the hearing the chairwoman urge her republican colleagues to listen to this testimony today with,

quote, an open heart, and the reason for that is because a lot of the items that you heard lexi's parents arguing that they want from congress. they're just simply not part of the negotiations that we have been covering in the u.s. senate, and that's not because there aren't democrats who want a ban on assault weapons, but because that's the kind of move republicans will not support in the u.s. senate, and you need at least ten republican votes to pass that kind of legislation. what is on the table is so much more narrow than that, and we have discussed this in the past, but if you remember, they are discussing the fact that they are trying to include juvenile records as part of the background checks system. if you're between the ages of 18 and 21 and you go into a gun store and you try to buy a gun like an ar-15, that is a significant change but it falls far short of what you heard

parents asking for just moments ago in that hearing. >> and phil, to you at the white house, what is the white house going to do? what is the president going to do? >> reporter: it's interesting. the president's posture coming back from a foreign trip and speaking on this in primetime last week as well but largely staying out of the negotiations. when you talk to white house officials, they made clear that's intentional. a long time member of the united states senate understands it's the senators that are going to have to get in the room and craft a potential agreement. i'll tell you, there is more optimism from white house officials than i've heard at any point over the course of the last 16 months with the guns issue. nothing is over the finish line yet but the top democrat point person, chris murphy, briefed the president's person on the contours of the deal but not everything laid out but it's something and while it's still an open question about getting across the finish line, the idea of getting something done after

years of falling short due to republican opposition, that, i think, white house officials are encouraged by. they know it's not there yet but mostly will see white house officials working behind the scenes trying to do whatever they can on the technical side of things, doing whatever they can to give to republicans and democrats to try to reach a negotiation. one last point, guys, and i think this is really important. so much of the last decade when it comes to this issue specifically, there's a disconnect between washington and what's happening on the ground inside the marble hallways of the capitol, sometimes at the white house as well. this is very real. i've never seen a hearing this quickly bring this poignant dramatic heartbreaking stories in the immediate aftermath of something like this. that matters. lauren can tell you, these lawmakers are watching. they see this. they know what's happening and it's having an effect at this moment in time. >> at this point in time, the politics on the hill do not match the emotion and the calls we saw on the hearing or frankly what public polls show about

wide support for background checks or high capacity magazine bans. they don't match it. so the facts on the hill will have to prove that wrong, because to date, hasn't moved the hill. lauren fox, phil mattingly. thank you. >> thank you for being with us, i'm poppy harlow. >> it's been tough for you to watch as much as to us. we'll bring this to you best we can. "at this hour" with kate bolduan starts right now. hello. i'm kate bolduan. we begin on capitol hill with the emotional and heartbreaking testimony from an 11-year-old child and also from the parents who had lost their daughter in the texas elementary school massacre. miah testifying via video. the young girl recounting the horror of what she lived t